Arnold Schönberg emigrates to the United States. He teaches at Malkin
Conservatory temporarily. Although Nancarrow claimed he did not know
Schönberg, according to Helen he attended Schönberg’s lectures.

1935–36

Conductor in Boston as part of a WPA (Work Progress Administration) project.
Nancarrow soon abandons this conducting activity, because he does consider
himself suited to it.

September 1, 1935

Separates from Helen.

1936

Nancarrow travels to Europe for a month as the trumpeter on a ship’s band.
He visits London and Paris as well as Austria. With a couple he travels by
car to Germany, where he presumably encounters fascism for the first time.

Nancarrow flees Valencia by ship for Barcelona. From there he crosses the
Pyrenees by foot into France and ends up in a reception camp. He returns by
ship to the United States. Lives in Texarkana for several months and then
goes to New York.

Nancarrow reads Henry Cowell’s New Musical Resources.

In
New York he has contact with Elliott Carter, Minna Lederman, and Aaron
Copland. Rights four reviews titled “Over the Air” for Modern Music.

1940

Premiere of the Septet, which was presumably written that year. The problems
with this performance reinforce Nancarrow’s decision to turn to the player
piano.

March 1940

Emigrates to Mexico for political reasons.

March 5, 1940

Divorce from Helen in Houston, Texas, in Nancarrow’s absence.

April 1940

During the first half of 1940 Nancarrow writes a review from Mexico for
Modern Music of Otto Mayer-Serra’s Panorama de la música mexicana.

1941

Circa 1941 Nancarrow wrote Sonatina, his final work for piano before the
player piano period began. It is the first composition he will later, for
practice, punch on rolls.

At
the suggestion of his friend Rodolfo Halffter, writes a Trio for Clarinet,
Bassoon, and Piano, though it is never performed as it places excessive
demands on the players.

Circa 1943 he wrote his first Piece for Orchestra (“Suite for Orchestra”).

Nancarrow meets Annette Margolis.

circa 1945

First String Quartet.

1947–49

Nancarrow works on a mechanical percussion orchestra in Mexico.

1947

Only trip to the United States between 1940 and 1981. Nancarrow remains
approximately three months in New York and has a punching machine built.
Through Minna Lederman he meets with Henry Cowell and hears Cage’s Sonatas
and Interludes.

February 4, 1947

Marries Annette Margolis at city hall in Manhattan, New York.

1947/48

Conlon and Annette build a house (Las Aguilas no. 48) and studio.

October 27, 1947

Nancarrow is paid out the inheritance he received from his father.

1949/50

Writes Rhythm Study No. 1 for player piano.

1950

Separates from Annette.

Hans Henny Jahnn finishes his trilogy of novels Fluss ohne Ufer (River
without banks), which contains an episode in which a composer in South
America “discovers” an electric piano that inspires him to write crazy
compositions. The working method of this fictional composer has astonishing
parallels to Nancarrow’s own methods.

1951

First performance of the Sonatina by James Sykes in Washington, DC.

October 1951

At
the suggestion of Elliott Carter, but without Nancarrow’s knowledge, New
Music publishes Nancarrow’s Rhythm Study No. 1.

Nancarrow mentioned in John Edmunds and Gordon Boelzner, Some
Twentieth-Century American Composers. New York: New York Public Library.

1960

From 1960 to about 1965, Nancarrow notated his player piano compositions.

Circa 1960, John Edmunds gave tapes of Nancarrow’s music to John Cage for
the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Studies Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were
used for the ballet Crises (premiere on August 19, 1960, at the thirteenth
American Dance Festivals in New London, Connecticut).

30
July 1962

Nancarrow organizes a player piano concert in the Bellas Artes, Sala Ponce,
at the suggestion of Rodolfo Halffter. The program lists Studies Nos. 1, 2,
4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 3a. This does not correspond to the
later numbering system, however. At that time, no. 13 included “seven
canonic studies” (the present nos. 13 to 19). No. 14 corresponded to today’s
No. 20 and No. 15 to Canon X (no. 21).

July 31, 1964

Premiere of Cross Currents, with player piano compositions by Nancarrow, by
the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London.

circa 1965

Experiments with preparing pianos à la Cage. Nancarrow purchases a small
player piano but is dissatisfied with the preparation and so sells the
instrument. Study No. 30 was written in the mid-1960s.

February 2, 1965

First and only letter from Henry Cowell to Nancarrow.

20
August 1965

The
News, a newspaper in Mexico City, publishes a long article on Nancarrow with
a photograph.

1969

Nancarrow completes Study No. 37. He continues working on nos. 34–36.

June 1969

The
first record with Nancarrow’s music is released as Columbia Records, MS
7222. It includes Studies Nos. 2, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 33.
Nancarrow meets Charles Amirkhanian during the recordings.

1970

Peter Garland is introduced to Nancarrow’s music by James Tenney and becomes
one of Nancarrow’s closest friends and colleagues.

Julio Estrada meets Nancarrow for the first time. They soon lose track of
one another for ten years.

March 2, 1971

Marries Yoko Sugiura Yamamoto in Mexico City.

March 24, 1971

Entry in the land register for new house based on plans by Juan O’Gorman.

August 1971

Nancarrow quits smoking for health reasons.

August 17, 1971

Birth of son, Mako (according to birth certificate: David Macoto).

1973

First correspondence between Peter Garland and Nancarrow. Garland publishes
a Nancarrow Study for the first time in Soundings, no. 6.

Nancarrow sends three tapes and the Columbia record to John Edmunds, who is
trying to get ballet groups in England interested in Nancarrow’s music.

1974

James Tenney visits Nancarrow.

Gordon Mumma visits Nancarrow.

February 3, 1974

Cage in Cuernavaca, c/o Dorothy Norman.

November 3, 1974

Nancarrow sends three Studies to Peter Garland for publication in Soundings.

prior to 1975

Aaron Copland visits Nancarrow in Mexico, as he had done several times
before.

Travels to United States (for the first time in thirty-two years) to
participate in the Annual New Music America Festival of Experimental Music
in San Francisco.

June 11, 1981

Kabuki Theater at the Japan Center: Concert with Nancarrow’s Studies Nos.
21, 10, 36, 25, 12, and 40b, played from tape and broadcast on the radio.
The following day there is a podium discussion with Nancarrow, Amirkhanian,
Reynolds, Mumma, Tenney, and Garland.

June 28, 1981

The
New York Times publishes an interview by John Rockwell: “Conlon Nancarrow:
Poet of the Player Piano.”

First broadcast of the First String Quartet by the Saarbrücker
Streichquartett on Radio Bremen (prior to concert premiere!).

April 22, 1982

Composer portrait of Nancarrow by Monika Fürst-Heidtmann on Saarländischer
Rundfunk.

May
1982

Eva
Soltes, Bob Shumaker, and a photograph make a slide show in Nancarrow’s
home.

May
20, 1982

Concert premiere of the First String Quaret by the Saarbrücker
Streichquartett in the Musik im 20. Jahrhundert festival organized by the
Saarländischer Rundfunk.

June 15, 1982

Südwestfunk broadcasts program Experimentelle Klaviermusik in Amerika by
Monika Fürst-Heidtmann.

June 30, 1982

Nancarrow’s first letter to Ligeti.

July 1982

Eva
Soltes signs contract with Contemporary Dancers of London.

Nancarrow receives a $300,000 “Genius Award” from the MacArthur Foundation.

Documenta 7 with an exhibition of photographs by Otfrid Nies, Rainer Berger,
and Klaus Marx. All the Studies for Player Piano available on LP are
presented in six concerts.

August 19–29, 1982

Nancarrow is composer-in-residence at the Cabrillo Festival. The conductor
Dennis Russell Davies had invited Nancarrow, along with John Cage and Lou
Harrison, as featured guest composer for the 20th Annual Cabrillo Music
Festival in Aptos, California. In a concert on August 26, entitled An
Evening with Nancarrow, the following pieces were performed: Piece for Small
Orchestra No. 1 (premiere, with Dennis Russell Davies), String Quartet (Kronos
Quartet), and the Toccata for Violin and Player Piano (American premiere by
Romuald Tecco). Nancarrow saw his brother, Charles, again.

Dr.
Greeson, of the University of Arkansas, visits Nancarrow and offers him an
honorary doctorate. Nancarrow declines it.

Nancarrow writes a “new” score (fair copy) of his Sonatina.

September 1983

Rejects invitation from DAAD to work in Berlin.

October 1983

Nancarrow accepts Mikhashoff’s proposal to contribute to his Tango
Collection.

November 1983

C.
F. Peters wants to publish the Sonatina and the First String Quartet.

July 1, 1983

Performance of the Toccata in Düsseldorf with Otfrid Nies.

January 30, 1984

Concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association with Nancarrow present.
Premiere of the Study No. 45. Nancarrow meets Slonimsky at soirée in the
home of Betty Freeman.

March 1984

Nancarrow travels to the United States and has five or six player piano
rolls copied by Play Rite in Turlock, California. He is satisfied with the
copies.

May
1984

Nancarrow completes Tango? for Mikhashoff’s Tango Collection.

June 1984

The
Kronos Quartet plays Nancarrow’s First String Quartet in Hannver.

September 1984

Eva
Soltes visits Nancarrow in Mexico. Problems with their collaboration.

October 1984

Eva
Soltes films in Nancarrow’s studio.

March 1985

Nancarrow is brought to the emergency room with high blood pressure and
bleeding.

May
2, 1985

First “live” concert of Studies for Player Piano at the WDR in Cologne.
Studies Nos. 6, 7, 19, and 21 are transferred to MIDI by Klarenz Barlow and
performed on a Marantz piano.

June 6–21, 1985

Participates in Almeida Festival, London. Premiere of the Trio for Clarinet,
Bassoon, and Piano (first and second movements only; third movement was
still lost at this point; it was found by the present author in 1990).
Nancarrow meets the Pianola player Rex Lawson.

July 1985

Nancarrow spends the summer in San Francisco, California, with Yoko and Mako
in the home of Bob Shumaker’s father.

August 10, 1985

Concert at the Center of Contemporary Art in Santa Fe in the series
Explorations in Music with Nancarrow present.

November 3, 1985

New
Music America in Los Angeles with Nancarrow present.

1986

Nancarrow’s Tango? published in the International Tango Collection by
Quadrivium Music Press.

1986

Ligeti tries, unsuccessfully, to have the Grawemeyer Award given to
Nancarrow.

1986

Split with his agent Eva Soltes.

January 29, 1986

Receives one-year visa for the United States.

March 1986

Nancarrow completes Piece for Small Orchestra No. 2 (commissioned by Betty
Freeman for the Continuum Ensemble).

April 1986

Nancarrow travels to the United States for premiere of Piece for Small
Orchestra No. 2 by the Continuum Ensemble at Lincoln Center in New York.

Nancarrow participates in Pacific Ring Festival of the Center for Music
Experiment of the University of California in San Diego, which is organized
by Roger Reynolds. There he meets John Cage and Nam June Paik. Performances
of, among other works, the Piece for Small Orchestra No. 2 and the version
of the Sonatina for piano two-hands, with which he is not satisfied.

Nancarrow participates in North American New Music Festival in Buffalo, NY.
Jan Williams and Ivar Mikhashoff are its artistic directors and the theme is
“Conlon Nancarrow in Person,” featuring an interview.

April 20, 1986

First and only meeting with Philip Carlsen in New York.

May
9, 1986

Nancarrow travels to New York to take part in a concert. The sold-out
performance is a great success.

May
22, 1986

Concert in the New York Philhamonic’s Horizons series in Avery Fisher Hall
with Piece for Chamber Orchestra No. 1.

June 1986

Peter Garland visits Nancarrow.

June 3, 1986

Otfrid Nies visits Nancarrow.

October 24, 1986

Schott would like to represent Nancarrow’s interests and sends him a draft
contract.

November 9, 1986

Nancarrow travels to the United States for four days (possibly to have
several piano rolls copied).

1987

Theo Janßen films in Nancarrow’s studio.

April 1987

Nancarrow completes his Third String Quartet, commissioned by the WDR.

late April or early May

The
Australian composer Alistair Riddell, who is building new kinds of player
pianos, visits Nancarrow.

June 1987

Works on Studies Nos. 46 and 50.

June 3, 1987

Nancarrow’s first letter to the present author.

June 22, 1987

Nancarrow travels to the Holland Festival in Amsterdam. Nancarrow’s Studies
are heard publicly on an original Ampico player piano for the first time
outside of Mexico: the present author’s Bösendorfer grand.

June 25, 1987

Nancarrow visits the national museum Van Speelklok tot Pierement in Utrecht,
one of the most important museums for mechanical musical instruments.

June 29, 1987

After the Holland Festival Yoko, Conlon, and Mako travel to London to
participate in the Almeida Festival. Then they return to Amsterdam as
tourists.

June 30, 1987

Almeida Festival, London. Concert in the Almeida Theatre with performance of
Pieces for Small Orchestra No. 1 und No. 2.

July 2, 1987

Almeida Festival. Concert in the Union Chapel with Studies, Prelude, Blues,
and Tango?

October 15, 1987

Nancarrow invited to Telluride Institute for Composer- to-Composer meeting
from August 17 to 21, 1988.

November 1987

Nancarrow quits drinking; until then he had consumed about a bottle of vodka
daily.

Digital recordings of all the Studies for Player Piano by WERGO made in
Mexico. Sound engineer: Bob Shumaker.

March 1988

Llorenç Barber visits Nancarrow.

June 21, 1988

Nancarrow travels on June 17 to the United States and takes part in the
celebrations of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the AMICA (Automatic Musical
Instrument Collectors Association) in San Francisco (Nancarrow had been an
honorary member of the association since 1982).

September 28–29, 1988

Interview by Kyle Gann in Mexico.

October 15, 1988

The
Westdeutscher Rundfunk organizes a series of three concerts in the
Philharmonie in Cologne: Musik und Maschine: Nancarrow und Ligeti in Köln
(Music and machine: Nancarrow and Ligeti in Cologne), with Nancarrow and
Ligeti present. Premiere of the Third String Quartet (commissioned by the
WDR) with the Arditti String Quartet and of Nancarrow’s own transcription of
the Study No. 26 for seven hands. Premiere of the Toccata with player piano
accompaniment with Otfrid Nies playing violin.

October 17, 1988

Concert at the Hamburgische Staatsoper for Ligeti’s sixty-fifth birthday.
Premiere of the player piano piece For Ligeti, a birthday present from
Nancarrow. Both composers were present.

October 18, 1988

Nancarrow concert at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover. With Nancarrow
present.

October 20, 1988

Nancarrow concert of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) in
the Alte Kongresshalle in Berlin. With Nancarrow present.

October 22, 1988

Visit to B. Schott’s Söhne in Mainz.

October 23, 1988

Nancarrows fly back from Frankfurt to Mexico City.

November 28, 1988

Trimpin works in Nancarrow’s studio for a week. Using a piano roll reader he
had constructed, he converts the punching information to MIDI data.

1989

Premiere of Heisig’s transcription of Nancarrow’s Study No. 26 in the
Stadttheater Döbeln.

Interview by Natalie Wheen.

February 1989

Kyle Gann visits Nancarrow.

February 10, 1989

Ursula Oppens returns “Canon B” of Three Canons for Ursula as unplayable.

May
1989

Nancarrow’s first prostate operation.

May
29–June 15, 1989

Jörg Borchardt repairs Nancarrow’s player pianos in Mexico.

June 1989

Nancarrow admitted to hospital in emergency.

Trimpin finishes making copies of all of Nancarrow rolls.

August 19, 1989

Nancarrow takes part in Composer-to-Composer Festival in Telluride,
Colorado.

September 14–16, 1989

Kyle Gann’s second interview with Nancarrow in Mexico City.

September 24, 1989

First Nancarrow concert as part of Warsaw Autumn.

November 11, 1989

New
Music America at the Brooklyn Academy of Music: New Wave Festival 1989. The
program was repeated on November 12.

November 19, 1989

Premiere of Two Canons for Ursula by Ursula Oppens in New York.

1990

Conlon and Yoko Nancarrow sell their vacation home in Cuernavaca for
financial reasons.

Nancarrow receives honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory in
Boston. The present author is uncertain whether he accepted it personally.

Coriún Aharonián visits Nancarrow.

January 8, 1990

Filmmaker Theo Janßen travels to Mexico to make a film about Nancarrow.

Premiere of Mikhashoff transcriptions of Studies Nos. 1 and 9 by the
Ensemble Modern in Graz.

February 2, 1990

Concerts at the Pilgrim Center of the Arts in Seattle, Washington with the
Studies Nos. 3a, 36, 40a, b, 44, and Tango? performed on Trimpin’s
computer-controlled instruments.

April 4–19, 1990

Present author visits Nancarrow in Mexico. The Septet, the third movement of
the first Trios, the Three Two-Part Studies for Piano, an early orchestral
sketch, several early piano pieces (fragments?) and sketches (for Study No.
3, among others), early photographs of Conlon and his first and second
wives, his brother, and his parents were found.

June 1990

Nancarrow’s studio is “cleaned up.”

September 1990

Nancarrow’s second prostate operation.

October 22–24, 1990

Seminar and concerts in Nancarrow’s honor at the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México.

1991

General assembly of the IGNM in Zurich elects Nancarrow an honorary member.

The
University of Arkansas approaches Nancarrow again to offer an honorary
doctorate. He turns it down again.